On 6/26/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <<a href="mailto:critical.montages@gmail.com">critical.montages@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > On 6/26/06, Jerry Monaco <<a href="mailto:monacojerry@gmail.com">monacojerry@gmail.com</a> > wrote: > > c)  The U.S. (and Britain, among others) owe massive reparations to the > > Iraqi people, (in money and in kind, to the government and to grass roots > > organizations, all to be decided  by the Iraqi people and not by the > > "donors") and these massive reparations should be considered merely the > > starting point for reversing all of the destruction the aggressors have > > caused. > > Take a good look at American liberals and leftists.  Do they look like > they are capable of establishing a US government that would pay > "massive reparations" to the Iraqi people (setting aside the absence > of an entity to which such a government might pay any reparations) any > time soon (if ever)? > Yoshie, I am a little perplexed about the reasons for your comment.  Perhaps you only wish to point out (as I have myself pointed out) that the fulfillment of even small goals is often a matter of education, organization, power, and class struggle. But just because we who believe in simple human decency don't have the power to force the U.S. to pay reparations (massive or otherwise) to the peoples our ruling class have harmed, doesn't mean that we shouldn't point out that it is a matter of principle that massive reparations should be paid.  To make such a demand, and to explain why the U.S. needs to pay reparations is simply one way we should be educating our fellow citizens.   It is as obvious to me, as it is to you, that those of us who believe in simple decency, and that the U.S. should not be run by war criminals, do not have much power in this Republic of Hypocrisy.  But the slogan for reparations (not only for Iraq, but for Vietnam, Nicaragua, etc.) is meant to point toward a goal.  It is really a minimal demand, like pointing out that we shouldn't treat prisoners inhumanely, or that U.S. bombing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq is either terrorism or a  war crime.   Or perhaps you wish to point out that a demand for reparations unattached from power politics is a mere "moral" demand and thus empty politically.  Maybe here is where we disagree.(?) My only excuse, then, is to say that as I get older I have come to believe that mere moral suasion does have some effect and that some demands are not predicated on class struggle, or political power, but by a prior belief in right and wrong. Even so, I still think it will take class struggle to fulfill such demands.   Jerry